Hidden Memories
by The Narrator's Muse
Summary: After everything that happened in her life, Sakura is going to end it all...by going to Fuuka Academy. Will she finally learn the truth about herself and her purpose? Will she find true love? Will she reach her goal? Sequel to New Memories, Old Friends.
1. Prologue: Moving, Again

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything Mai HiME, it all belongs to the respective creators**

**Prologue: Moving...Again **

Sakura flew as fast as she could. It was nearing dawn and she was tired, but she wanted to cover as much distance as she possibly could in one night. As she flew, she reflected on the things that had led her to this moment.

First, there was her birth and life as Sakura Ogasawara, second daughter of the incredibly rich Ogasawara family. That life included many happy memories shared with her elder sister Sachiko and their friends. It also included not so happy memories that included being the female test subject of her uncle's genetic engineering project to create a race he called Draconians, people with angel wings and special powers, which ended up being shut down by Sakura's father. That life as an Ogasawara ended with Sakura's disownment from her family after overhearing a terrifying conversation between the men of her family and years of physical abuse.

Then there was her life as Sakura Kusumoto, the adopted younger sister of a journalist for the _Tokyo Times_ newspaper by the name of Mizuki. That life began after Mizuki adopted Sakura after her disownment from the Ogasawara family, and it was filled with happy memories of her best friend Yumi Fukazawa and going to school at Lillian Girl's Academy. It was also filled with drama from Sakura's reunion with her elder sister, Sachiko, to Sakura's attempted suicide and her final showdown with her grandfather that ended the life of the male test subject of her uncle's crazy schemes and Sakura's best friend from childhood, Lance. That life ended when Mizuki and Sakura were in a car crash on their way to visit Lance and Mizuki died in hospital while Sakura was in a coma for a number of weeks, scaring her friends, and her biological sister, to death.

Immediately following her life as a Kusumoto, there was her life as Sakura Aoi, adopted elder sister of Nagisa Aoi, the daughter of one of Mizuki's friends from work. After coming out of the coma induced by the accident that killed Mizuki, Sakura met the Aoi family and came under their guardianship as she had nowhere else to go at the time. As Nagisa's parents had to go overseas for work, Sakura and Nagisa were sent to St. Miator's Boarding School for Girls located on Astraea Hill. Sakura's life there was filled with memories and mysteries. After meeting the Etoile of the school, Shizuma Hanazono, and discovering that she was a friend from Sakura's life as an Ogasawara, Sakura began having dreams about Mizuki and Lance who were both dead. These dreams turned out to be real visits to limbo, the place between life and death, and Sakura was sent there to discover that she had to fight monsters that would keep coming after her until she was dead.

After a rather terrifying experience with one of these monsters, where the monster Sakura was fighting attacked a student of Lulim, one of Miator's neighbouring schools that Miator students shared dorms with, Sakura decided that she had to end the monster attacks once and for all in order to keep the people she cared about alive and safe. This meant immediately transferring to Fuuka Academy, a co-ed day and boarding school located on Fuuka Island. After telling Shizuma her decision to transfer, and being very cryptic about the reasons why, Sakura received two pictures from Shizuma. Both photos were from Sakura's past life as an Ogasawara and included a brunette girl a year older than Sakura whom Shizuma explained was her cousin that Sakura had met once at a Hanazono Family Reunion that Shizuma had brought Sakura and Sachiko to. After Shizuma left, Sakura wrote three letters, one to Nagisa and the other two to Sachiko, who had shown up at Miator to check on how Sakura was doing, only to stay for a couple extra weeks as an exchange-type thing. Leaving the letters in obvious places to be found, Sakura grabbed her previously packed suitcase and backpack, climbed out her window onto the roof, unfolded her wings, and flew off into the night in the direction of Fuuka Academy without a second glance back.

* * *

**A/N: so there you have it. the first chapter of the third installment of my Memories saga. theres not much for me to say here since this is really just a short summary for people who havent read the first two installments and dont feel like doing so. i promise to get the next chapter out as soon as i can. until then, R+R and let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 1: Welcome to Fuuka

**Disclaimer: same old, same old, i don't own anything Mai HiME it all belongs to the respective creators**

**Chapter One: Welcome to Fuuka**

After leaving Astraea, Sakura flew for two days and nights straight plus the full night she flew the night she left. By the third night since she left, Sakura was forced to stop out of sheer exhaustion and actually get some sleep. She hadn't packed any food, which was poor planning on her part, so she had to content herself with the berries and edible plants she could find once she landed. Waking up on the third day, Sakura checked the directions she had copied off her laptop and found that, if she flew without rest again, she could make it to Fuuka in three days time. Deciding to do that, Sakura flew for three more days and nights straight.

By midday on the sixth day since she left, Sakura looked at the ground below and saw an island she assumed was Fuuka Island. Speeding up, Sakura flew over the school on the island, taking note of the large buildings scattered about the campus. Noticing a rather large wooded area, Sakura looked for a clearing to land in and found one a good kilometre away from any of the school buildings. As she headed down, Sakura realized too late that the break in the trees wasn't as big as she originally thought it was. Pulling her wings in and preparing for a rough landing, Sakura plummeted to the ground, breaking many tree limbs along the way before colliding with the hard earth.

Lying on her front in order to catch her breath, Sakura let her wings fade away before standing up and brushing herself off. After making sure there wasn't any permanent damage, either to her or her bags, Sakura headed off in the direction of the school. Once she reached the edge of the clearing, right along the paved walkway towards what she assumed were the academics buildings, Sakura realized she had no idea where she was supposed to go. Dropping her suitcase, Sakura pulled out the directions she had copied six days previously and realized that they didn't specify which building she was supposed to go to.

_*Just perfect,*_ Sakura thought to herself, stuffing the map back in her bag in irritation.

"Um, excuse me,"

Sakura looked up at the voice and found a rather busty redhead, _*though her hair is more orange than red,*_ in what appeared to be Fuuka Academy's uniform looking at her oddly. Attached to the redhead's arm was another girl, a middle-schooler if the uniform was any clue, with black hair and golden eyes _* she looks very much like a cat.*_

"You look lost, can I help you?" The redhead asked, somewhat shyly.

"Actually, you can," Sakura said, giving the girl a sheepish smile, which seemed to relax the girl a bit. "I was just accepted to transfer here a few days ago and the Director gave me directions to get here, however she didn't specify where I was to go once I got here."

"Hmm," the redhead said, putting a finger to her chin while the cat-like girl attached to her just stared at Sakura. "Well, when I arrived, I was found unconscious on the school grounds after the ferry I was on had a malfunction and sank. I was taken to the Student Council, so I guess that's a good place to start."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Sakura said, giving the girl another smile.

"I'm Mai by the way," the redhead said as she began leading Sakura across the grounds. "Mai Tokiha."

"And I'm Mikoto," the cat-girl said, introducing herself as well. "Mikoto Minagi."

"I'm Sakura," Sakura said, already liking these two girls. "Sakura Kusumoto."

"Nice to meet you," Mai said, as the girls came closer to the academics building. "So what year are you in?" Mai asked, curious about the new student walking beside her.

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'm a second year high school student," Sakura said, realizing that the years might be different. "At least, that's what I was at my other school so I'm sure it's the same here."

"That's too bad," Mai said, at Sakura's confused look she explained. "What I mean is, there isn't the slightest chance that you'll be in my class; I'm a first year high school student."

"I see. What about you Mikoto?" Sakura asked, turning to the younger girl.

"I'm in middle school," Mikoto said happily. "I stay with Mai in the dorms though, Mai's cooking is the best!"

"Mikoto!" Mai reprimanded, slightly embarrassed, as Sakura laughed at the two girls as Mai huffed at her. "Anyway, this is the Academics building, the Student Council offices are in here. Once you're in the hallway, walk down to the end of it, turn left, it'll be the middle door on your right hand side. I have to go to class now, but I'll probably see you around at the dorms?"

"Sure," Sakura said, "thanks Mai-chan, you saved me a lot of trouble...and from getting lost."

"You're welcome," Mai said, laughing as she and Mikoto turned around.

"Bye Sakura!" Mikoto called, before she and Mai left Sakura in front of the building alone.

Inwardly laughing at Mikoto's childishness, Sakura entered the building and followed Mai's directions until she was standing in front of a door. She could hear voices, three females and a male, so she decided to knock, effectively silencing the voices in the room. Sakura heard footsteps stomping over to the door, before it was flung open by an annoyed-looking blonde.

"What do you want?" The blonde said, turning to Sakura before being shocked into silence as she stared at Sakura who stared right back, wondering where she had seen the blonde before.

"Haruka-chan, what is it?" A mousy-looking brunette with glasses came to stand beside the blonde, apparently called Haruka, and looked in confusion from Sakura to Haruka and back again.

Sakura, noticing the brunette's confusion, snapped out of her thoughts and shrugged to show that she had no idea what was wrong with the blonde. "I'm Sakura," Sakura said, deciding to break the silence that had fallen over the trio. "I just transferred and was directed to the Student Council to get everything organized, this is the Student Council room right?"

"Yes, it is," the brunette said, smiling shyly at Sakura. "Please come in Sakura-san."

Sakura followed the mousy girl into the room, Haruka following behind, still looking shocked and confused. Upon entering the room, Sakura noticed that it was rather large and there were two other people in it. The first was a good-looking guy with black hair wearing a black and red version of the uniform. He was giving Sakura the same look that Haruka was giving her. The other one was a girl, wearing a lighter coloured jacket than that of the regular uniform, with light brown hair and the most curious red eyes Sakura had ever seen.

"Ara, Yukino-chan, who is this?" The girl asked, turning her piercing gaze to Sakura.

_*She has an interesting accent,*_ Sakura thought to herself, _*probably from Kyoto.*_

"Sakura-san, she just transferred and was directed to us," the mousy girl, Yukino, replied, saying the same thing Sakura had told her at the door.

"Ara, I see," the brunette said, turning her head back to Sakura. "Well then, I suppose we should get you all sorted out then shouldn't we?"

"Yea, that would be nice," Sakura said, setting her suitcase down as it was getting heavy.

"Well for starters, we're the Student Council," the brunette said, gesturing around the room. "Haruka Suzushiro is the head of the Disciplinary Committee, and Yukino Kikukawa is her assistant. Reito Kanzaki is our Vice President and I'm Shizuru Fujino, the President."

"I see," Sakura said, nodding to each person in the room as Shizuru said their name and pointed them out.

"Yea, yea, yea, enough with the peasantries," Haruka said, waving her hand in the air. "Let's get this over with; I have delinquents to deal with."

"It's 'pleasantries' Haruka-chan," Yukino corrected.

"Ara, I believe that Haruka has a point," Shizuru said, opening her laptop. "Let's see, you will be in class 2-A, your schedule, and a map of the school, is right here," Shizuru passed Sakura a sheet of paper, still looking at her computer screen, "and your dorm is room number 87, you have a third-year roommate, I hope that is okay?"

"It's fine," Sakura said. "I don't mind sharing a room, as long as whoever my roommate is doesn't ask too many uncomfortable questions, we should get along fine."

"I see," Shizuru said, wondering what Sakura meant by 'uncomfortable questions', but decided not to press the girl further. "Well, here is your room key, you may go and drop your bags off before heading to your first afternoon class, make sure you get your teachers to sign that sheet of paper that's with your schedule."

"Thank you, I will do that," Sakura said, taking the key Shizuru offered her before bowing to the rest of the room as she left. Once she was out of the academics building, Sakura took the map Shizuru had given her and made her way to the dormitory. She found her room on the third floor, down the hall from the room Mai was in; if the paper taped to the door that read "Tokiha Mai and Minagi Mikoto" was any clue. Taking out her key, Sakura unlocked the room and entered. The room was large, larger than her room in the Strawberry Dorms had been. It had two beds, two desks, a bathroom and a kitchen area complete with a stove, microwave, cupboards and fridge. There was also a coffee table and a couch in front of two large glass doors that led onto an apartment-like balcony that overlooked the forest Sakura had landed in earlier that day.

Taking a look around the room with the beds and desks, Sakura noted that her roommate was very tidy as everything was incredibly clean and spotless. Looking in the cupboards, Sakura also found a large collection of different kinds of tea, indicating that her roommate was a tea-drinker as well. Finding nothing else of interest, Sakura began to unpack her bags. She put her toiletries on a spare shelf in the bathroom, put her clothes in the closet, set her picture frames and photo album on her desk and put her suitcase under her bed before grabbing her backpack and heading out the door back to the academics building for her first afternoon class, History.

* * *

After a good ten minutes of trying to find her class, Sakura finally found herself in front of the door that led her to history class. Taking a deep breath to calm her sudden nerves, Sakura knocked on the door before passing through it. As she stepped into the classroom, she felt, rather than saw, every single eye in the class turn to her. Her teacher, or the person she assumed to be her teacher, looked over at the new comer with interest. She wore her reddish-brown hair in a ponytail and was wearing a jeans and a zip-up sweatshirt she left open to reveal her red shirt underneath. Her hazel eyes looked Sakura up and down for a minute before declaring: "You're late," in a no-nonsense voice.

"Pardon?" Sakura asked, surprised at the tone the teacher used.

"I said you're late, and where is your uniform?" The teacher said, surprising Sakura even more.

"Um, Midori-sensei," a girl in the middle of the class, next to an empty seat by the window said, raising her hand.

"Yes, what is it Maeda-san?" the teacher, Midori now, said as she turned from Sakura to the student who had raised her hand.

"Isn't that the new transfer student Kaichou-sama said would be showing up today?" The girl asked.

Hearing this question, Midori spun around and looked Sakura up and down again, before smacking herself on the forehead. "You're right! I'm sorry about that," Midori said, completely changing her attitude. "I completely forgot!" The rest of the class sniggered at this while Sakura just looked on confused. "Don't just stand there," Midori said, "come up here and introduce yourself."

"O...kay..." Sakura said, walking up to stand beside Midori. "Well, my name is Sakura and as you all are already aware, I just transferred to Fuuka and arrived today. I enjoy playing piano and have never been to a co-ed school before, let alone one as big as this. I don't like talking about the past, especially mine, so don't ask me about it, unless you want to piss me off of course but I wouldn't recommend that." There were murmurs from the class about the last part, but Sakura ignored them and looked at her teacher. After a nod from Midori, Sakura went and sat down in the empty desk beside the girl who had pointed out their teacher's mistake earlier on in the class. As Sakura sat down, Midori resumed her lesson about some war that Sakura had already studied, she wasn't really paying attention, just staring out the window, but then the view of Fuuka turned into the night view from Sakura's room in the Strawberry Dorms.

* * *

_*Vision of the Past*_

_Sakura watched Fuuka's grounds change into her room in the Strawberry Dorms. She saw Sachiko sitting on her bed, the two letters Sakura had left her sitting beside her as she put her head in her hands._

"_Damn it Sakura!" Sachiko yelled, standing up and pacing the room. "Why do you do this to me? I've been worried about you. Ever since the Theatre Festival you've been acting weird. You come back from class and sleep as if you were dead, you barely eat anything, you're always passing out in class and disappearing to who knows where and now you just decide to transfer and up and leave on me without telling anybody anything! Shizuma said you were being really cryptic when you told her you were transferring, which means that whatever made you transfer has something to do with you being a Draconian." Sachiko sat back down on the bed, the letter in her hands. "You left me a letter that doesn't explain anything, but tells me to tell your friends about what you are, and you leave me a copy of what you said is your will." Sachiko threw the letter away from her like it was something gross._

_Sachiko lay down on the bed; she was crying now, tears streaming down her face, and it broke Sakura's heart. "Are you planning on not coming back? Are you going to get hurt? Is what you're doing so dangerous that you couldn't tell me about it and had to leave immediately? Are you going to die? Am I going to lose you again? Please don't do that to me! I lost you once thanks to our family and I almost lost you again when you tried to kill yourself. I thought I had lost you when you wouldn't come out of that damn coma! I can't lose you again! Don't make me live through that again! Don't Sakura!"_

_*End Vision*_

_

* * *

_

Sachiko's cry sent Sakura bolting upright, a light sheen of sweat covering her skin. It wasn't until after she calmed down and her heart rate returned to normal that she realized that she wasn't in her classroom at all, instead, she was lying in her bed in her dorm room and it was dark outside.

"So you're finally awake."

Sakura jumped and looked around for the source of the voice. "Kaichou-san," Sakura said, seeing Shizuru sitting at the coffee table, a cup of tea in her hands. "What are you doing here?"

"Ara, I believe I live here," Shizuru said, calmly sipping her tea. "And you can call me Shizuru."

"Then call me Sakura," Sakura replied, then thought of something. "Wait, so _you're_ my roommate?" Sakura asked, eyes wide. _*No wonder the place is so clean...*_

"Yes, I believe I am," Shizuru replied, looking at Sakura over her tea cup. "You see, when you transferred, the Director immediately contacted me to look into finding you a room. However, all the rooms were full, so I offered to change my large single room into a double."

"I see," Sakura said, touched by Shizuru's actions. "Well, thanks."

"You're welcome," Shizuru replied, putting her cup back on the table. "Now, what's this about you being physically and mentally exhausted? So much so that you passed out in the middle of your first class this afternoon?"

"What?" Sakura asked, then she remembered that she had the vision of Sachiko in History class, but came out of it in her dorm room. "Oh, so that's what happened."

"Yes that is what happened," Shizuru said, giving Sakura her full attention. "You had sat down for barely three minutes and just passed out. Maeda-san said that your eyes got really big, then they closed and you just fell over out of your seat onto the floor and gave Midori-sensei quite the panic-attack when you did so, apparently you were barely breathing." Shizuru paused to let this information sink into Sakura's head before she continued. "Maeda-san brought you to the infirmary where Youko-san took a look at you. She said that your condition was due to physical and mental fatigue as well as malnutrition. What have you been doing to yourself?"

"Why does it matter to you?" Sakura asked, crossing her arms and going on the defensive, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

"It matters to me because, not only am I the Kaichou and therefore responsible for the students of this school," Shizuru said, her facial expression never changing. "It matters because I'm your roommate. I like you Sakura, you're an interesting girl and I don't want to see you get hurt."

Seeing the genuine concern in the older girl's wine-red eyes, _*What a strange colour, how did I not notice before?*_ Sakura sighed. "If you must know, I had to get here by myself. The Director only gave me a week to get here so I had to take...unconventional transportation. I don't sleep well while travelling, nor did I eat a lot, and I had to spend six days like that followed immediately by running all over this place trying to get everything sorted out before being sent off to class."

"How in the world have you been functioning?" Shizuru asked, eyes wide in horror. "A normal person would have passed out days ago!"

Seeing Shizuru's panicked expression, Sakura shrugged. "I've pretty much been running on adrenaline and over-tiredness, I also happen to have excellent stamina and endurance. I didn't really notice anything until I passed out." _*Even though I was too focused on my vision to notice anything until I came out of it.*_

"I see..." Shizuru said, realizing all she would get out of the other girl would be cryptic half-answers. "In any case, I have arranged for you to take the next few days off so you could recuperate. You are expected to not be seen in class, understand?" Shizuru asked, dead serious.

"Yes," Sakura said, nodding her head. _*Sachiko would get along well with this girl, they're both very demanding and constantly worried about my well-being.*_ Thinking of Sachiko made Sakura remember her vision and she cringed inwardly at how much she had hurt her elder sister.

"Good," Shizuru said, "now go back to sleep, it's almost one in the morning."

"What about you?" Sakura asked, turning to teasing instead of defensive. "Don't tell me you were waiting up all night for me to become conscious again?"

_*Is she __teasing__ me?*_ Shizuru thought, and decided to tease the other girl back. "Ara, maybe I was, maybe I wasn't."

Taking note of the purposefully cryptic answer, Sakura rolled her eyes. "Whatever, good-night," Sakura lay back down and rolled over so her back was to Shizuru. "Oh, and Shizuru?" She asked, turning her head to look at the older girl who had not moved.

"Ara, yes?" Shizuru asked, wondering what was up with the other girl's switching emotions tonight.

"Thanks, for, you know, caring about me," Sakura said, avoiding the older girl's confused eyes. "You really shouldn't care about me, neither should anyone else for that matter, but thanks anyway." With that, Sakura rolled back over and let sleep overcome her, while a very confused Shizuru was left puzzling over what the younger girl had just said.

* * *

**A/N: so there you have it. chapter one is officially complete. personally i think this didn't turn out as well on paper as it did in my head, but ill let you guys be the judge of that. R+R please. Oh, and thanks to NinjaM for the title idea!**


	3. Chapter 2: Getting to Know You

**Disclaimer: as always i own nothing but the plotline**

**Chapter Two: Getting to Know You**

The next morning, after a very heated discussion between the two roommates about Sakura attending school or not, which ultimately led to Shizuru literally locking Sakura in the room from the outside, Shizuru found herself seated in the student council room listening to Haruka and Reito discuss the new girl.

"What I can't understand is why you had her stay in the tame room as you," Haruka said, clearly not impressed with Shizuru's actions the day before.

"It's 'same room' Haruka-chan," Yukino corrected from her own seat. "However, I too am curious to know why you had Sakura-san stay with you," Yukino continued, turning to Shizuru who was sipping her tea quietly. "Not that she doesn't seem like a good person or anything, but you have the right as Student Council President to have your own room."

"And Sakura-san does seem a little aloof," Reito added. "What was that she said the other day? If her roommate didn't ask too many uncomfortable questions everything would go fine? What did she mean by that?"

"Ara, I don't know," Shizuru replied, shaking her head slightly. "That's one of the reasons I had her room with me, I want to know what is going on inside that head of hers, she seems so..."

"Familiar?" Haruka asked, voicing the thought that had plagued her more than Mai Tokiha's unexpected method of arrival a couple weeks previously, something that she obsessed over for quite a while before giving up.

"Not the word I was looking for, but now that you mention it, yes she does," Shizuru replied, putting her tea on the desk in front of her. "I can't remember from where or how, but I feel as if I've known her, or at least met her before. It is rather annoying that I cannot remember."

"Well that makes three of us then," Reito said, looking from Shizuru to Haruka and back again. "I also felt as if I had seen her before, or at least someone that looked incredibly similar."

"Indeed," Shizuru said, nodding her head slightly. "I suppose it is one more of the things about Sakura that we will never know until we ask." With that, the council began their early-morning meeting.

* * *

While the council talked about her, Sakura herself had gotten bored out of her mind and escaped from her dorm room by means of the small balcony that Shizuru had conveniently forgotten about when she decided to lock Sakura in the room to make sure she got her rest. Climbing down the side of the building, Sakura dropped lightly to the ground and began to explore the grounds a little bit. She was crossing to the other side of the road about three-quarters of the way to the entrance to the school grounds when a blue and silver motorbike nearly collided with her. Lucky for Sakura, both she and the rider had super fast reflexes. As the rider slammed the brakes and came to a screeching halt in a wide arc, Sakura herself dove to the side, rolling with the speed of impact before lying motionless on her back as she tried to get her breath back.

"Oh my god! Are you okay?" the bike rider had gotten off and run over to Sakura who was picking herself up off the ground.

"Yea, I'm fine," Sakura said, rubbing the back of her head which had collided with the pavement. Looking up, Sakura realized the rider was female and had taken her helmet off, revealing dark midnight blue hair and emerald eyes that were worried, yet cold at the same time.

"Are you new here?" the rider asked out of the blue. "I mean, I haven't seen you around here before and most people, aside from me, don't skip class."

"Yes, I am new, and no I'm not skipping," Sakura replied defensively, brushing off the jeans and black t-shirt she had put on after Shizuru locked her in their room earlier that morning.

"Oh yea?" the other girl asked, clearly not believing Sakura. "Then why are you heading out of the school grounds in a t-shirt and jeans?"

"Because my roommate locked me in my room this morning to keep me in bed after I passed out yesterday," Sakura explained, "and I don't have my uniform yet and I didn't know that I was heading out of the grounds because I'm lost and don't know which way is up around here."

"Well usually the sky is a good indicator of which way is up," the blunette pointed out.

"Yea, whatever," Sakura said, rolling her eyes at the girl's smart-aleck remark before checking her watch and realizing Shizuru would be back at the dorm soon. "I better get going. Have to make it back to the dorms before my roommate shows up and gives me another one of her lectures. Stupid red-eyed woman, locking me in my own room," Sakura muttered, turning to head back the way she had just come. "By the way," she said, turning her head back to the emerald-eyed girl who was giving her an odd look, "cool Ducati." With that, Sakura left the rather stunned girl behind and made her way back to the dorms.

* * *

At the dorms, Sakura found her room, climbed up to the balcony, entered her room, grabbed a book and flopped on her bed just as she heard a key turn in the lock. Looking up as the door opened, Sakura watched Shizuru walk in, a stack of papers in her hand.

"Ara, it seems that you actually chose to listen to me," Shizuru said, walking over to the pair of desks as Sakura sat up on her bed.

"It wasn't much of a choice," Sakura replied, closing her book. "You locked me in here remember?"

"Ara, did I?" Shizuru said, placing the stack of papers on Sakura's desk. "That's your homework for today," she explained when Sakura gave her a questioning look.

"Great," Sakura said, rolling her eyes. Walking over to her desk, she looked at the papers and realized that all the homework she had been given was just the same as most of the stuff she had taken while at Miator. Sitting down at the desk, Sakura started on the work while Shizuru made herself some tea before starting on her own work. An hour and a half of silence later, both girls had finished their homework.

"I'm going to make dinner," Sakura said, standing up and stretching before heading into the kitchen area. "Is there anything in particular you feel like having?"

"Ara, anything Sakura makes is fine with me," Shizuru said, placing her books back into her school bag.

"Okay," Sakura replied. She opened the cupboards and fridge and sweat-dropped at the scarce amount of food in the place. However, she did manage to find a stack of instant noodle packets in one cupboard, so she boiled some water and let the noodles cook before adding some of the vegetables she found in the fridge. Once she was done and had two steaming bowls of noodles in her hands, Sakura walked back into the other room to find Shizuru sitting at Sakura's own desk and looking through the photo album Sakura had left on top of it.

"Umm, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, holding one bowl of noodles out in front of Shizuru, curious as to why her roommate would want to look at something like that.

"Ara, kannin na," Shizuru replied, closing the book and taking the offered noodles as well as the chopsticks that accompanied them. "I saw it sitting on your desk; I thought it would be a good way to get to know you."

"That's what questions and answers are for," Sakura said bemusedly as she seated herself at Shizuru's desk, seeing as the other girl had taken over Sakura's, and began to eat.

"But you said yourself you didn't like people asking about you," Shizuru said, now completely confused as she too began to eat the noodles Sakura had brought in.

"I said I don't like people asking about my _past_," Sakura said, emphasizing the word 'past', "I never said anything about being against a game of 20 Questions."

"20 Questions?" Shizuru asked, having no idea what the younger girl was on about.

"20 Questions," Sakura repeated, "it's a game played between two people who haven't met each other before and are going to be spending a lot of time together, or a game between friends to test each other's knowledge about one another. A friend of mine taught me it when I joined her 'Bored Games Club'...before it became the Detective Club, honestly I never really knew what her club was half the time she changed it so often."

"How do you play?" Shizuru asked, curious.

"Well," Sakura said, leaning back in the chair, "one person asks the other person a question and they have to answer, and the person who asked the question also has to answer the question. Then the person who asked the question asks another question and it continues on like that." Noticing the look Shizuru was giving her, Sakura added: "I know I make it sound really confusing, but it isn't."

"Let's play then," Shizuru suggested.

"Okay," Sakura agreed, "but since you're the one with all the questions, you ask them."

"Fair enough," Shizuru answered, accepting the other girl's terms. "So...what's your favourite colour?"

"That's a very basic question to ask," Sakura said, surprised at Shizuru's choice of first questions.

"I like to have a basic understanding of people," Shizuru replied. "So? What is it?"

"Hmmm...I'd have to say silver and sapphire," Sakura replied, thinking of the silver sword disguised as a pen that Lance had given her mere months prior and the sapphire colour of Sachiko's eyes, before flinching at the thought of both her deceased friend and her worried sister.

"Those are quite specific," Shizuru commented, curious as to why the other girl seemed to flinch after giving her answer.

"I'm a very specific person...when I want to be," Sakura replied. "What about yours?"

"Ara, I like green and dark blue," Shizuru answered, picturing Natsuki's emerald green eyes and dark blue hair. "Okay next question, do you have any siblings?"

"Yea," Sakura replied, "I have an older sister, even though she's only older by about a year, and most people are quite unable to tell us apart. Apparently we look so similar that we get mistaken for twins, everybody thinks we're exactly the same."

"You don't agree with that assessment?" Shizuru asked.

"I do, to some extent," Sakura replied. "We look quite similar and, when someone close to us is threatened, we may act in a similar way, but the two of us are as different as the sun and the moon; yin and yang personalities if you will. Despite our differences, we do care for each other quite a lot."

"You're lucky," Shizuru replied. "I've been an only child my entire life, but I have a younger cousin, younger by about two months, who treats me like a sister so she kind of makes up for that. So what is your sister like?"

"Hmm..." Sakura thought. "My sister...how to describe her? Let's put it this way, she is the epitome of a lady. She is elegant, graceful, has beautiful manners and is constantly hiding her emotions and is a master at keeping them under control, unless of course someone she cares about is threatened in some way, shape or form. When that happens you better hope that you aren't the one on the receiving end of her anger. She can get really scary at those times and gives off an aura of a devil of varying degrees depending on the situation."

"She sounds like a very remarkable person," Shizuma stated, trying to imagine having a sister like Sakura's.

"She is, but she worries about me so much. My over-protective friends know that I can handle myself and are hardly ever on my case. My sister, however, is an entirely different story." Sakura said.

"How so?" Shizuru asked.

"Remember how you were freaking out yesterday over my passing out in class, which led you to locking me in our room today?" Sakura replied. "Multiply your freaking out by about a thousand and, instead of locking me in my room, forcing me to stay in bed while staying in the room with me to make sure I didn't do anything stupid. That's how crazy my sister gets when it comes to taking care of me and making sure I'm alright every second of every minute of every hour of every day."

"Wow," Shizuru said, for lack of anything else to say.

"Wow is right," Sakura replied. "How about you? What's your cousin like?"

"She's a player," Shizuru replied simply. "When she was a kid she was all cute and carefree and everything, she liked to flirt too, but wasn't over-the-top about it. Then she got her heart broken in middle school...or was it the first year of high school? Anyway, after that she became distant and moody, not at all like the cousin I loved to tease and have her tease me back. She started flirting excessively with every girl she saw and began skipping out on her work duties for her student council."

"Hah! Sounds like someone I know very well," Sakura said, remembering that Shizuma was like that before she started falling for Nagisa, and Nagisa started falling for her. "But she changed and is not like that at all anymore."

"Really? Why is that?" Shizuru asked.

"Well, she tried to hit me at my last school, on my first day nonetheless, and I sort of got carried away and gave her a piece of my mind." Sakura explained, rubbing her neck in embarrassment. "Then she started actually falling for someone I knew and that person started falling for her back and things just continued from there. I hope everything works out for them." Sakura added, looking out the window and wondering if things had indeed worked out for Shizuma and Nagisa, Tamao as well.

"What do you mean?" Shizuru asked, noting that her new roommate seemed distracted and that this was probably the best time to get information out of her.

Sakura sighed. "When I left, things were kind of a mess. My friend, the one who fell for the playgirl of the school, had a roommate who liked her, a lot. However, my friend is incredibly dense and her roommate was her best friend so I don't think she even noticed how much her roommate liked her. Also, the playgirl fell for my friend as well and the three of them were kind of in a love triangle thing with my friend at the top of it." Sakura now seemed to be talking more to herself than to Shizuru. "Add to that the fact that I've been taking trips to limbo in my sleep to talk with Lance and Mizuki, who are both dead, in an effort to deal with some dark force that only I can stop. My sister freaking out over my constant fainting spells that land me in the infirmary for hours, my failing grades and the headaches. Add to _that_ the monsters, the battles, oh, and the fact that I was careless and almost ended up getting someone killed and you have the perfect picture of my life!" Sakura cried, throwing her hands in the air before collapsing onto the desk, her face hidden in her crossed arms.

Shizuru, realizing that Sakura probably had no idea that she had been talking out loud and had probably given Shizuru more information than intended, decided not to comment on the younger girl's outburst and instead walked over and put her hand on the back of Sakura's head, prompting the other girl to look up at her. "I think that's enough for tonight," Shizuru said. "Why don't you get ready for bed while I clean the dishes? You look tired and if you feel better tomorrow I might allow you to go to class."

Sakura merely nodded, not having the energy to argue despite having not done much all day and, as Shizuru grabbed both bowls and the two sets of chopsticks, set about getting ready to sleep. By the time Shizuru was done in the kitchen, Sakura was already in her pyjamas, which consisted of a white tank top and sapphire pyjama pants, and was fast asleep with the covers partially on the floor. Giggling silently to herself, Shizuru pulled the covers back up over the other girl and pulled on her own pyjamas before climbing into her own bed and, despite the numerous thoughts flying through her head that were brought about the earlier conversation, soon followed Sakura's example and was fast asleep in seconds.

* * *

**A/N: hey guys. wow its been a really long time since i updated. sorry about that. this chapter was pretty much a filler to 1: introduce Sakura to Natsuki and 2: establish a bit of a friendship with the roommies so theres not much to say about it except that hopefully the plot will start to move along a bit faster. also, if anyone wants me to bring in sakura's friends or sister (adopted or biological) please let me know. R + R please!**


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